


Late to the War Room

by kvaerx



Series: Kaaras Adaar Worldstate Snippets [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Baron Plucky is a demon, F/M, Some Cullen thinking about lyrium, slight implied sexual content (pre-story), war room meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28186836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvaerx/pseuds/kvaerx
Summary: Kaaras Adaar and Josephine are late in arriving to the War Room. Cullen realizes what that could mean. It throws him off a bit.
Relationships: Male Adaar/Josephine Montilyet, Male Inquisitor/Josephine Montilyet
Series: Kaaras Adaar Worldstate Snippets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064879
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Late to the War Room

Cullen shifted his weight from his left foot to his right. His hand clenched and unclenched around the hilt of his sword. The air was heavy with the chill of winter. Two torches burned brightly on either side of the door, but it was easy to forget about them with the morning light that shone through the windows behind the war table.

Leliana was standing beside him, staring down at the table. Her hood hid the upper half of her face and shadowed the lower half. He could just see how her lips were pressed together in a grim line as she studied the table.

Each marker seemed to taunt them. The enemies they knew about were numerous and well-positioned. Their own troops were spread out, their defenses thin. They were helping. The Inquisition was acting as it should, as a force for good. Still, it made him uneasy. Skyhold was defensible, but if an attack did come…

He turned his thoughts to something else. Karaas was missing again. Not for so long as he had been when they found him passed out after his night of drinking with Iron Bull— _The_ Iron Bull, Cullen reminded himself. The man liked his article— but it was long enough to be noticed. Josephine was absent too though. Likely, a problem had come up and they were both seeing to it. He couldn’t make himself fully believe it though. They should have gotten here by now.

He  looked to the door. He would have sworn he’d heard movement outside it. Just as quickly, he looked back to the war table. His brain playing tricks on him, making him hear things that weren’t there. Was it the lyrium again? Was something worse about to happen? He gripped the edge of the table tight enough to hurt his fingers.

“I have no doubt they will be along shortly,” Leliana said.

Cullen jerked his head up. He hadn’t realized just how he’d pressed his chin to his chest in an attempt to focus himself. Or how tightly he’d clenched his jaw. For that, his first words were slightly muffled stutters. “I- Well- I hope so.”

She nodded and looked back to the war table.

He was never quite sure what to say to her. At times, she seemed to know everything, even people’s thoughts and next actions. Her network of informants was so widespread that it seemed almost magic. They weren’t just eyes and ears either. A single command sent out and carried by one of those ravens could mean the death of any number of people. If it was that demon bird sent out with the message, it would probably kill the target without the need for any of the scouts to draw their weapons. Baron Plucky. That raven had probably already killed someone. And if not, well, Cullen knew that some of the scouts were keeping a list of how many fingers were lost to it. It was a very Orlesian thing, to title the most violent, bloodthirsty creatures.

The door to the War Room opened. The noise, a soft scraping of the heavy oak against the stone, shook Cullen from his thoughts.

It was Josephine.  Stray curls were escaping from where she’d tied her hair back behind her head. As she stepped through the doorway, Cullen saw her dress seemed somewhat disheveled. The usually controlled, albeit confusing, nature of all the golden ruffles on her sleeves now seemed more like unrestrained chaos. She clutched her writing board in one hand and her quill in the other. As she walked over to at the table, Cullen leaned away from the candle.

“I apologize for my lateness. I was… There was a matter of business to see to.” Josephine took her place at the table and looked over to where Kaaras stood in the doorway. “Inquisitor.”

The Inquisitor was wearing a loose shirt and pants, the kind meant to be worn beneath armor. His armor though and his greatsword were missing. Usually he had them when they convened in the mornings as he would go to drill with the soldiers afterwards.

Kaaras tugged on the collar of his shirt, pulling it forward and rolling his shoulders. “Yes.” He looked from Leliana to Cullen. “I am sorry for that.”

Cullen frowned. “Sorry?” he asked.

Kaaras shrugged and took his place at the table to study the troop markers. “I was business.”

He said it with such a serious but unconcerned tone that Cullen nodded his acknowledgment and b egan to summarize how their soldiers were faring  in the Western Approach .  His thoughts wandered as he spoke, relaying information he could have listed in his sleep. Kaaras and Josephine both late, and both similarly untidy. That with Kaaras’ strange apology. They had been close of late, spending time together and sharing smiles.  He’d fought a duel for her too.  A moment later though, the points fell into place in his head.  They were courting.

H e broke off his speech and glanced at the two of them. Kaaras was attentive and unconcerned, but Josephine seemed nervous or perhaps guilty. They noticed him watching after a moment and he looked away, trying frantically to recall the troops he’d had yet to speak about.  He hadn’t finished all of the camps in Orlais, or had he?  “On… um… The  Hissing Wastes?” Had he gone over the soldiers there yet? He couldn’t remember. His realization had thrown everything off.

“Commander?” Leliana asked. She was smiling, a rare genuine smile of amusement. She had to know. Both about the Inquisitor and Josephine and about his own realization. She knew everything, or seemed to, at least.

Cullen could swear he felt himself reddening. “Nothing. It’s nothing.” He shook his head to clear it and return his focus to their meeting. “Back to the troops in the Hissing Wastes.”

She accepted that and said nothing more.

He relayed situation there. It felt strangely like he was repeating himself. If that was true or not, none of the other three mentioned it.


End file.
